This invention relates generally to the art of hospital beds and more particularly to a safety apparatus to prevent patient injury.
Hospital beds have conventionally been utilized having collapsible guard rails on either side of the bed to prevent a patient from unintentionally rolling from the bed. The guard rails are collapsible so as to permit normal patient ingress and egress as well as medical treatment of the patient. One such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,446 while other U.S. patents disclose hospital bed guard systems 4,232,415, 2,648,075, 2,751,608, 1,062,127, 4,771,292 and 3,376,066.
While these collapsible guard rails have functioned satisfactorily for many patients, other patients have managed to injure themselves while such guard rails are in place.